Shuffle Up and Deal With It
by starwisher
Summary: "If music be the food of love, play on." A Shuffle collection of various ratings. All IchiRuki fluff/smut.
1. Rooney: All in Your Head

**Disclaimer**: Insert boring "I don't own Bleach" bullshit here. You don't read it anyway, now do you?

**Author's Notes**: Hi! I'm starwisher, and this is my first time posting a Bleach fanfiction. Be gentle with me. Or not, if that's your kink. I'm okay either way. *winks* And yes, that should give you a clue as to the general theme of my stories. I'm hardcore IchiRuki - like, included them in my wedding vows hardcore. I support smuff. And I sprinkle everything with a nice healthy dose of Inoue-bashing. Don't like it? FanFiction has a lovely feature: it allows you to sort fics by character. Go figure out how to use it. Shoo.

**About _Shuffle Up and Deal With It_: **It's an iPod-on-Shuffle songshot collection, whoo. My library was rather depleted at the time I started this little cupcake. Not so much anymore. Expect all sorts of lovely soon.

**Chapter Rating**: Ehh, **T-to-baby-wipe-mild M**. This one has two teensy-weensy Ichigoisms, a word and a thought, because he's a total badass. Surely you little monsters can handle that. If you can't, stop watching Bleach, you're in the wrong fandom. Go back to playing with your Happy Meal Omnitrix and stop wasting my time.

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**Shuffle Up and Deal With It  
**  
"All in Your Head" – Rooney

_What did you expect?  
Well I told you from the start that I'm not your boyfriend._  
_All the hope, all the pain, all the tears you cried;_  
_Every laugh, every kiss, every time I lied -_  
_Well I'm not what you think or dreamed of;_  
_It's all in your head_

* * *

She is constantly attempting to apply a label to their relationship, if it can even be _called_ that.

_"People in a relationship like ours normally call themselves boyfriend and girlfriend, do they not?"_

He _hates_ labels.

She is always trying to shower him with physical affection in public - around their friends and comrades, in particular.

_"But I love you, and I just want to show it."_

He _hates_ public displays of affection.

She is always complaining about how much pain he puts her through, about how often she cries.

_"Why can't you love me the way I want to be loved?"_

He _hates_ her, why should he do _anything_ she wants?

He rolls his amber eyes as she begins babbling incessantly again, before sneaking a glance at the beautiful dark-haired, blue-eyed pixie sitting beside him.

Kurosaki Ichigo knows that if he were dating Kuchiki Rukia, she wouldn't demand titles, or express excess physical affection, or complain he did not love her correctly.

_No. It'd be something without a true definition. It'd be slick skin on silk sheets and wild screams in the dead of night. It'd be impossible to love her any way other than 'right', because she'd make it perfectly clear and it would come naturally._

The little nymph next to him meets his gaze suddenly, and he quickly makes sure his scowl is screwed on straight, that his face is not red, that he does not look in any way, shape, or form in love with her.

But her blue eyes twinkle, and a little smile stretches across her face, and he knows, suddenly and without a doubt, that she knows, and she reciprocates.

"Inoue," he says suddenly, and everyone looks up at him in surprise. Especially Rukia, but her look is more of amusement than shock.

Inoue Orihime blinks big grey eyes at him, a deer in the headlights. _Or a cow in the pasture._ "Yes, Kurosaki-kun?"

"Shut the fuck up. We're through."

And then he reaches over, grabs Rukia's hand, and the two of them walk away without even looking back.

"About time," she chuckles, tightening her grip on his hand almost imperceptibly as high, strident, crazed shrieks of denial fade into the background.

He glares at her and vows to make her scream for that.

* * *

Review. It's easy if you try.

***starwisher**


	2. Aqualung: Pressure Suit

**Disclaimer**: Insert boring "I don't own Bleach" bullshit here. If you read it last time, thank you. Have a cat. ^..^

**Author's Notes**: Yup, still starwisher. This time, a nice sobering dose of Angsty!Rukia. Because she's just not angsty enough.

**Chapter Rating:** Way K. Nothing at all in this one. Meh. But really, could you write something rated-M to a fluffy Aqualung tune?

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**Shuffle Up and Deal With It**

"Pressure Suit" – Aqualung

_Don't want to be forgiven, but drag you down from where you are_  
_Drift out in the darkness, lost out on horizon_  
_It's alright, it's alright_  
_I'll be your respirator, I'll be your parachute_  
_It's alright, it's alright_

* * *

He watches her across the room.

She is standing still before the huge window in their apartment, her hips swaying ever so slightly to the acoustic rock playing in the background.

She is gazing up at the stars in wonder, and her chest is rising and falling, rising and falling in the motion of breathing.

They're sharing their own little world, their own little spinning sphere, and yet, he feels all alone, so far away from her at ten feet. When she opens her mouth, when her smoky voice saturates his being again, he begins walking towards her, unable to stay away for long.

If he could, he would become oxygen, just to be closer to her. Just to be that much closer to her heart.

"I wonder if Soul Society is behind the stars in relation to Earth," she says suddenly, whimsically, with a heavy dose of sadness and angst in her tone.

Surprised, he stops, begins to respond, but then she cuts him off with a sharp bark of laughter, a sound too caustic for the serene environment. "No, because that would make us angels, and we're…"

She inhales sharply, hugging herself tightly, suddenly short of breath. "_I'm_ definitely not an angel."

He has the strange and sneaking suspicion there would be tears in her bottomless violet-blue eyes if he looked.

He hugs her abruptly, taking her by surprise. Two sparkling stardrops fall to the floor with the suddenness of the motion, and she gasps.

"You're _my_ angel, Rukia," he says over her shoulder, not meeting her gaze, just resting his chin gently on her neck. He hears a soft sound catch in her throat. "And _nothing_ you can say will make me think otherwise."

Normally she'd fight him, call him a fool or a sentimental freak or something of the like.

But tonight, it's exactly the words she needs to hear. All the pressure on her heart evaporates, dissipates like the finest mist.

And she breathes easily again.

* * *

Aw, I _love_ IchiRuki. Really, I'm not as sarcastic as the author's _review _notes would make me seem!

PS: Anyone get the Americanime dig in last chapter?


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